Sakura lifted herself from her bed and walked slowly to her closet. She picked up an old t-shirt and a pair of shorts and her two-piece swimsuit.

"Waking up this early to go to the beach is pretty ridiculous." she thought to herself, rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes.

She met with her father downstairs and walked past him without another thought. She squeaked in surprise as his large hand grabbed her shoulder. He turned her around and stared at her for a moment with dark, solemn eyes.

"Where are you going, Sakura?" he asked.

She held her bag of beach supplies tightly in her arms and smiled. "I'm just going to the beach with my friends. I should be going now, Dad, I'll see you later."

She tried to walk to the door, but was caught again by her father's grasp. She faced him once more, but was met with an aggravated expression crossing his face.

"If you keep hanging out with those boys... I will make sure to talk to their parents about it and you won't see them outside of school anymore."

She pulled away and walked to the door. "I'm not hanging out with them today. I'm hanging out with Ino and my friends from class," she replied.

Kizashi's expression softened and returned back to his normal demeanor. "Oh, that's fine then! Have fun honey." He retreated back to the kitchen to make himself coffee.

Sakura walked to the shed and pulled out her old bicycle. She placed her bag in the old basket and launched her leg over the other side of the bike. She lied to her father, but as long as he didn't find out, nobody would get hurt.

Her feet pedaled all the way to the entrance of the fenced-in beach. She wiped beads of sweat from her forehead and waved to her Student Council friends. She ran through the sand that burnt the soles of her feet and stood in the cool waves.

"Why are you in your clothes? You can't swim like that or you'll get chafed pretty bad," Sasori stated, holding his rolled-up towel in his arm.

Sakura stuck her tongue out. "Yeah, I forgot about that. I'll be right back, oh, and let me lock my bike too."

She raced back to her bike and then to the changing room, leaving the boys alone.

"So, this will be," Itachi started.

"The first time we see Sakura-chan in a swimsuit." Deidara finished.

An awkward silence spread through the group and each boy held a squirmy, helpless look on their face. They continued to stay silent and shifted uneasily as the waves crashed onto the beach around their feet.

"Why are we acting like this? It's not that big of a deal; we've seen girls in bathing suits before," Kisame questioned.

"And it's not like we all like Cherry-chan anyway. That shit would be fucked up," Hidan half-joked.

"Yeah." Kakuzu said casually.

Another moment of awkward silence fell over them. Although they were in a group, it was as if each boy was in their own world, with their own thoughts. Each of them wondered what the others were thinking, but weren't able to speak out their thoughts. They were all friends, but something has changed dramatically inside them. For some reason, that thread of friendship has thinned and they didn't seem to understand how one girl could change their relationships so much.

Itachi noticed the pinkette walking out of the changing room with a towel wrapped around her body. "Looks like she's wearing a one-piece," he observed, sounding quite disappointed.

Her hair flowed carelessly in the wind as she walked forward. Her towel hid her body causing each boy to guess what she could be wearing underneath. Although the day was hot, the boys were sweating as if they were in the afternoon sun of a desert. Their hearts pounded against their chest as she pulled the towel off of her body and laid it on the hot sand.

Her two-piece swimsuit was a modest style compared to what most girls wear in today's age. A large, ruffled bow covered her small breasts and a short skirt made of translucent fabric covered her bottom. Each article of the swimsuit was held with drawstrings that made a neat bow.

The only parts of her body that were given attention were her flat stomach and her long legs. The girl had no curves, but looked confident in her own skin - that's what made her look beautiful.

She raced to her friends, but was caught off-guard by a pair of large breasts pressed against her back and arms wrapping around her.

"Sakura! I didn't know you were going to come today!" Ino squealed.

Sakura turned to her blonde friend and frowned, "What do you mean?"

Ino jumped away and walked to the group of students from their homeroom. "A few of us decided during our last day of class we wanted to go to the beach together. I was surprised you knew about it since you always go to the Student Council room during lunch." Sakura's classmates waved at her and encircled her.

"Oh, I didn't hear that. I came here with my other friends," Sakura explained, pointing to the six boys standing in the waves.

The freshmen in her class gasped in awe. "Wow, they even hang out with you after school and club activities?" Shikamaru asked, impressed.

"Well, I did say 'friends' and friends do hang out together," she answered, slightly annoyed.

Naruto broke through the group and grabbed Sakura's wrist. "Who cares? Let's go swim, Sakura-chan!" Sakura twisted away and motioned towards her junior and senior clubmates.

"Let me go ask if they want to swim too." She could hear Naruto groan, but ignored the blonde's childish behavior.

She dashed through the hot sand and asked if they'd like to swim. "It'll be fun," she added, happily.

Their plan ruined, each boy refused to swim out with her classmates. She shrugged and went back into the ocean to swim with her friends- with her freshman friends here, she didn't feel as bad for lying to her dad either.

Itachi rolled out his towel next to the others and sat down. "I can't believe we're here and yet we're not swimming." he sighed.

"It's because her stupid freshman friends are here. Ugh, why can't she be a higher grade level?" Deidara complained.

"I hate freshman - they ruin everything," Sasori said disgusted.

Itachi stretched on his towel and brushed sand from his swimming trunks. "Well, since they ruined our beach day, let's try to take it back."

The six boys walked over to Ino and surrounded her. She brought her knees to her chest and glanced at each of them.

"W-what is it? Sakura's over there if you n-need her." she stuttered.

Sasori crept closer to the girl and stared deeply into her eyes. "My goodness, Yamanaka-chan, you're so beautiful. I'm wondering how long I must wait to restrain myself from kissing you." He almost puked.

The poor freshman girl's face and chest turned a light red. She stayed silent, so Sasori continued spouting cheesy, romantic lines.

"I'm desperate for your touch Yamanaka-chan. I want to feel your velvet skin against mine as we embrace each other into the night."

Itachi sat down next to her. "As you can see, Yamanaka-san, Sasori-kun is very much in love with you. He's rather shy, so I'll tell you what he truly wants," Itachi continued nearing Ino's ear, "He wants to go on a date with you today."

Ino's blush deepened. "Wh-what?! He does?" She knew she was good-looking, but a junior confessing their love was something she wasn't expecting.

"Yes, he has been watching you for so long, but has never found the words he needed to ask you out properly." Itachi explained in a smooth voice.

Sasori crawled closer. "Will you accept?"

Ino smiled widely and giggled, "Of course! Where would you like to go?"

"Meet me at Ichiraku Diner at two o'clock and I want you to look your very best." He forced a flirtatious smile on his face and winked at the naive girl.

Ino stood from her spot with slightly shaking legs and packed up her things. "Two o'clock? Okay, I'll go get ready now." She walked in a daze back to her home.

Sasori crawled away and began dry-heaving exaggeratedly. "Ugh, that was horrible! I will never do that again." he wheezed.

"That's alright. Next we'll go after Nara and Akimichi," Itachi ordered.

The team raced over to the two leaning against the changing rooms. "What do you upperclassmen want with us?" Shikamaru asked.

Sasori, Deidara and Kisame pulled Shikamaru away while Kakuzu, Hidan and Itachi pulled Choji in the other direction.

"Hey, you know Yamanaka, right?" Deidara whispered to the freshman.

"What about her?" Choji asked Itachi while munching on a candybar.

Itachi leaned closer to the pudgy freshman. "I heard that she has a major crush on you, Akimichi."

Shikamaru stumbled backwards against the wall and dropped the bag of chips in his hand. "Ino doesn't like me like that! Atleast I've never heard about it. How troublesome..."

Deidara nodded his head and gave the Nara an honest smile. "Yeah, she wants to meet you at Ichiraku Diner."

Choji was eating his candybar with amazing speed and almost choked on the last piece. Itachi slapped his back a few times and the boy finally calmed down. "She really wants to see me at Ichiraku Diner?"

Itachi and Deidara both moved closer to each boy they were speaking to. "It will be at two o'clock, so make sure you're not late."

Shikamaru and Choji walked to meet each other. Shikamaru casually placed his hands in his pockets and turned his head toward the sky.

"Hey, Choji, I forgot that I have an important errand to run for my mom. Is it okay if I split?"

Choji nodded his head nervously. "Yeah, that's cool. I've got something I need to do too." the large boy answered.

The two waved goodbye and ran off in opposite directions.

After the group lost sight of the boys, they bursted up in laughter. Itachi knew most of the children due to his role as Student Council President, so this will be easy. He walked to the next group of freshman. He was ready to continue their objective to lose all the freshman and enjoy the beach with Sakura.

"Aburame, I heard that the Entomology Research Center is having a free tour day today. And-"

Shino interrupted Deidara with a raised hand. "There is no need to say anymore, sir. I shall gladly go there without another thought." The boy raced off without another word into the route of the bug center.

"That kid's fuckin' weird," Hidan muttered.

Itachi pointed the remaining three. "We have Inuzuka, Hyuga, and Uzumaki left. We have to make sure that Sakura doesn't know thast we're the ones causing their absences."

"I'll get Inuzuka." Kakuzu stated and walked to the dog-like boy.

Itachi stepped to Sasori and Hidan. "You two will distract Sakura for awhile. I'll take care of Uzumaki and Deidara will work with Hyuga."

"What should I do?" Kisame asked, ready to take on any mission.

Itachi thought for a moment and pointed towards the vending machine. "You go get us some drinks - it's really hot out."

Kisame hunched his back and walked slowly to the vending machines. "I wanted to do something too!"

Kakuzu mentioned Kiba's older sister needing help at the veterinarian clinic. Although the boy questioned the senior how he knew, Kakuzu's tall stature and angry face was enough for Kiba to trust him.

-two more-

Sasori and Hidan waded through the water and distracted Sakura by catching a small crab and chasing her.

Itachi walked to Naruto in the water and whispered, "There having a sale on ramen at the supermarket today." Naruto ran out of the water and dashed out of the beach.

-one more-

Deidara walked to Hinata's beach towel. "Hey, there," he said dark-haired girl said nothing back and shyly hid her face in her hands.

"You're Hyuga-san, right? I think it's cool how your dad runs that entire Byaku Glasses company all by himself. Anyway, more to the point, Uzumaki wants you to help him shop for ramen. "

Hinata almost fainted. "N-naruto-kun? H-he wants m-m-meee to help him shop?"

Deidara bent down and helped the girl to her feet. " How about you promise to buy him a few packets of ramen? I'm sure he'll like that."

He walked the girl to the entrance of the beach and watched as she drove away on her electric scooter.

-MISSION COMPLETE-

Sakura punched Sasori and Hidan, but was unable to find her classmates. "Where did they all go?" she asked aloud.

Itachi walked over and simply shrugged. "I'm not sure. They all must've forgotten something important they had to do."

They waited for the girl to speak, but was surprised by a sudden scream. Sakura raced to the changing room and put her clothes on over her swimsuit. The boys chased after her and continued to question her strange behavior.

"I'm really sorry guys, but I totally forgot that I have a summer homework assignment that I need to get done! We only have two weeks of summer left and I can't waste anymore time - bye!" She pedaled away on her bike and was immediately out of sight.

"All that work for nothing." Sasori sighed.

Kisame took a sip of his drink. "Maybe we should have just accepted her offer instead of trying to get rid of the stupid freshmen."

Deidara froze in terror and pointed. "Ehh, speaking of freshmen..." The group of Sakura's homeroom classmates were raging towards them - their faces were not amused by their lies.

"You asshole you stood me up and tried making Shikamaru and Choji substitute for you!" Ino yelled.

"How dare you lie about the Entomology Reseach Center! Although, I did get a free pamphlet..."

"My sister didn't need my help! And you made Hinata-chan have a panic attack!"

"You're dead for lying about the half-off sale at the supermarket!"

The group backed away and Itachi tried his best to reason with the group. "Now, now everyone... We can't possibly fight a group of freshmen."

Naruto lifted his fist. "You don't have to! We'll beat the crap outta you before you can!"

Sakura pulled out her World Literature book and her notebook. She opened it and laughed, "Oh my gosh! I could have swore that I didn't even start it yet! Oh well, I bet the guys will think it's hilarious."

xxx

Huehue, Vomment. <3

xTsu